Data on polling station officers in the Lok Sabha elections

Kensuke Maeba

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Sep 26, 2020, 6:40:35 PM9/26/20

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Dear community members,

I hope everyone stays safe. I am looking for data about the polling station officers in the Lok Sabha elections. As far as I know from Compendium of Instructions 2019 Volume-I pages 127 to 129, there should be the lists of information about the polling station officers such as name, sex, place of residence, workplace, home constituency, designation, office/department/institution they work, polling station that they are assigned to, and the other team members (as each polling station gets a team of officers). This data should be stored electronically, probably at the district election offices. Any information about this data would be much appreciated. Thank you very much for your consideration in advance.

Yours sincerely,

Kensuke

Saba Mundlay

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Oct 1, 2020, 12:49:43 AM10/1/20

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Is northwestern doing some type of project on Indian voting lol ?

For starters, you can look through this (it's for MH only but you'll find a similar website for other states) https://ceo.maharashtra.gov.in/Defaultc.aspx. I suspect you'll have to do this data collection by state.

Kensuke Maeba

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Oct 1, 2020, 9:04:23 PM10/1/20

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We are working on independent projects, though we know each other!

Thank you for the information. I went through the CEO's website for a couple of states but could not find any. Do you have any suggestions on where to look next?

On a different note, I was considering the RTI request for the data. But I realized that I could not file because I am not an Indian citizen. Do you know where I can find a help with it?

Best,

Kensuke

Saba Mundlay

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Oct 2, 2020, 8:47:09 AM10/2/20

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hmm yeah, ok so I went a level lower and found some info at the district level. So for example, mumbai surburban has a who's who page https://mumbaisuburban.gov.in/about-district/whos-who/. I'm not 100% sure what you mean by polling officer tbh because I would assume this changes as the polling stations change. I don't see an aggregated list anywhere, and it seems that you would maybe have to go district by district.

in the CEO Delhi website, I did find some election officers https://ceodelhi.gov.in/ContsctsCEO.aspx

Saba Mundlay

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Oct 2, 2020, 8:48:34 AM10/2/20

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re: RTI, I would get in touch with someone in a university here or who has some experience with RTI filing. If you aren't very specific / clear, it can be used as a way not to answer your question

Saba Mundlay

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Oct 2, 2020, 9:00:47 AM10/2/20

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For Karnataka, you can find it here https://kgis.ksrsac.in/election/

Emmerich Davies

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Oct 3, 2020, 12:12:18 PM10/3/20

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The online appendix and README from Yusuf Neggers's AER paper using Vidhan Sabha polling booth worker data suggests he collected that data himself directly from the Office of the CEO: https://www.aeaweb.org/articles?id=10.1257/aer.20170404

You might want to ask him what the process was. He might even be on this google group.

hth,

Emmerich

Kensuke Maeba

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Oct 4, 2020, 2:21:37 PM10/4/20

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Hi Saba,

Thank you very much for all the information. I was thinking about the same thing that I need go to a district website one by one. I will start with Karnataka as the link you shared with me seems worth exploring!

Hi Emmerich,

Yes, that was one of the example using those data. He kindly told me that he collected it by himself involving a few trips to the districts. I do not think it is possible to do the same under our Covid-19 situation, so am wondering if there is another way of getting them. But thank you very much though!